An industry standard, the FERNO SCOOP.RTM. Stretcher allows medical personnel to place a stretcher beneath a patient without lifting or logrolling. The scoop is a two piece unit with a head panel, a torso panel and a leg panel mounted on each of two adjustable length rails. The curved ends of the rails may be snapped together to form a rigid coupling that leaves a space between the panels but comfortably supports the patient.
When the stretcher with a patient thereon is placed on a bed the rigid coupling is difficult to unlock but if the patient should not be rolled unlocking is a necessity. The opener of this invention is preferably formed from a semi rigid plastic, has a projection narrow enough to slide behind an internal lock lever of the rail coupling, and a front projection that may be pushed downward with finger pressure to rotate the internal lock lever to easily open the quick lock coupling. This opener is small enough to be carried on a key chain and solves the opener problem. Since in emergency vehicles opening the valve on a small oxygen bottle is sometimes necessary the opener has a rectangular opening to allow a dual use of the opener for opening oxygen bottles.